Big Brew COVID-style: YEAST SELECTIONS NEEDED
marclec...@gmail.com
Greetings Brewers!
If you haven’t been able to join us for the last couple of virtual meetings, you’ve missed some great stuff. We had Randy Mosher two weeks ago (yes, THAT Randy Mosher) and this past Monday, Chris White was on with us. Look for an email tomorrow about the meeting coming up this Monday. While we have had some heavy hitter guests join us with some fascination information and stories, the real benefit for me personally has been one based in mental health. If you haven’t been on one of these virtual meetings, I strongly encourage you to hop on with us Monday, crack open a beer and hang out for a bit. Dues paying member or not. Haven’t been to a meeting in 10 years? Don’t care! Come hang out.
As most of you know, the high-holy holiday of homebrew is on May 2nd – the Big Brew! Typically, about 15-20 of us all get together and knock out a bunch of homebrew along with hundreds of clubs around the country. This year, however, things are going to be very different. Your brew partners and support staff will all need to come directly from your quarantine crew! We’ve been talking through plans to live stream these solo big brews from their homes via a Zoom meeting that gets live streamed to YouTube. We still have a lot of details to work out on what the format would be like. But, several people are interested in participating. It probably won’t get picked as the next Tiger King. But, I think it will be fun and extremely memorable. We might even have a virtual safety inspector! If you are interested in being one of our streamed brewers, please let me know relatively soon so we can work out and test the technical side. A good wifi signal at your brew spot and a cell phone should be all you need to join the fun.
There will be no predetermined recipes this year. If you want to make a Corona clone, go for it. You can brew whatever you want, any way you want. Automated countertop setup, brew in a bag, or full-blow, all grain triple decoction. As a matter of fact, I think it would be super interesting if we had all the major brewing setups represented on the stream.
Joe Bair (www.solarhomebrew.com) is looking for us to make some yeast and/or recipe commitments. He wants to make sure he’s stocked for what you all want to brew. So, if you plan to brew on May 2 (or sooner), shoot Joe an email with your yeast selection. Otherwise, you may be freestyling. It’s also worth mentioning that Joe has a sale running on kits. I’m attaching pics of the store’s kit stock as of yesterday. All of the kits with the old branding (glasses logo vs the B) are 35% off. The best way to make your kit or yeast choices known is to email joe directly at j...@solarhomebrew.com by Friday at Noon.
Lastly, we would greatly appreciate anyone that’s able to renew their club dues. I know this crisis is having a massive impact on household income. However, if you are able, we could certainly use support. At this point, we are tapping into reserves to keep the club active. There’s a no-touch option for reupping your dues at www.paleales.org/join via PayPal.
If you have any questions or suggestions, fire away! I look forward sharing a homebrew with you all very soon!
Marc
